Teenage stowaway survives five-hour flight in jet's wheel

A teenage boy ran away from home and survived a five-hour flight from
California to Hawaii hiding in the wheel compartment of a jetliner

7:52AM BST 22 Apr 2014

The 16-year-old boy was apparently unscathed after surviving freezing temperatures and a lack of oxygen after a five-hour flight from California to Hawaii stowed away in a passenger plane's wheel well.

While experts questioned how the boy had survived, the FBI said that security camera footage had shown the unnamed teenager scaling the perimeter fence at California’s San Jose airport on Sunday morning and walking towards a Hawaiian Airlines Boeing 767 that took off shortly afterwards for Kahului airport on Maui island.

Five hours later airline officials said the boy was found dazed but otherwise unhurt wandering on the tarmac at Kahului, after flying halfway across the pacific at a maximum altitude of 38,000ft where outside temperatures descended as low as minus 80F.

Officials said he had run away from home after a row with his parents and arrived on Flight 45 to Hawaii with only the clothes he was wearing and a pocket comb. He was carrying no form of identification but officials said last night that his parents had been informed.